Against All Odds
by Havoka
Summary: Abandoned after shooting Carley, Lilly discovers the other woman is still alive. Now alone, without aid, and struggling to retain her sanity, Lilly must decide Carley's fate - should she leave her to die, or risk both of their lives out on the road?
1. A Second Chance

Chapter 1

Red light bathed her trembling form as the RV pulled away. Lilly positioned herself boldly in the middle of the road, hoping to at least instill as much guilt in the group as she could before they disappeared from view. Maybe it would make them stop. Maybe they'd feel bad and come back for her.

As much as the thought revolted her, she wasn't above begging for her life.

She noticed Lee watching her out the back window. His gaze was apathetic – cold, uncaring. They weren't going to come back for her. It was obvious by that look.

The snarl of a walker startled her into action. _Shit, the gunshot. _The undead monsters began to pour out of the surrounding forest, all eager for a taste of her. She ran, away from the walkers, away from the RV. Away from Carley's lifeless body, sprawled helplessly on the road's dirt shoulder.

_Wait a minute._ As the RV disappeared, leaving a deathly silence pierced only by grunts and growls, she had an idea.

Carley was the perfect distraction.

It wasn't something she wanted to do by any means. But it would keep her alive, or at least give her a chance to flee. Lilly backpedaled, hurrying over to the spot where she had been abandoned. All around, the walkers slowly closed in on her. _I'm sorry, Carley._ She knelt by the woman, her former friend, reaching reluctantly for her. _You deserved better than this._ They didn't always get along, but Lilly had gone too far and she knew that. As she scooped up the bloody corpse, she realized she could still feel the warmth of Carley's body heat. _She's still warm and I'm throwing her to walkers..._ Guilt ate at the broken woman, but she knew she had only two choices – slow the hungering beasts by offering them an easy meal, or become a meal herself.

She flipped Carley over, noticing the hideous, bullet-induced damage done to her jaw. Other than that garish wound, she still looked the same. So vibrant, so full of life. Almost as if she wasn't even dead...

A garbled groan rattled the throat of the woman Lilly carried. Lilly panicked, assuming she was turning. Around her, the undead crept closer, reaching out with their filthy claws.

Weak fingers gripped Lilly's arm as Carley coughed and drooled blood down the front of her shirt. Lilly watched with wide eyes as she struggled for breath. _Walkers don't breathe._ She quickly lifted one of Carley's demure wrists, checking for a pulse. A weak, unsteady thumping told her something she was terrified to discover.

Carley was still alive.

A walker latched onto Lilly's jacket. Lilly kicked it back, sending it flying. _Damn it, Carley! _She tore off a strip of her undershirt, tying it around the woman's wound. In a single, hurried gesture, she draped her unconscious comrade over her shoulders, carrying her piggyback-style. _You're gonna get us both killed._

Moving as fast as she could manage with the new weight on her back, Lilly crouched low and scurried past the swarm of walkers. Keeping her back as flat and level as she could to keep Carley from slipping off, she nimbly dodged the undead arms grabbing for her. _I'm an idiot for doing this._

Carley's arms hung limply around Lilly's neck, the puffy purple sleeves of her coat stained with mud and grass. Lilly kept her hands behind her back, propping Carley up as she increased her pace. Even weighed down, she was managing to outrun the walkers – but she couldn't keep that pace up forever.

_Let her go. Let her go and you'll be able to get to safety. _The voice that had tormented her since her father's death began to whisper in her ear again. Lilly squeezed her eyes shut, shaking her head to drown it out. "I'm not like that."

_You already shot her. Why not finish the job?_

Lilly broke out into a full run, with no clue where she was headed.

_Everyone already thinks she's dead. Just leave her here, no one will ever know._

"Shut up!" Lilly gritted her teeth, willing the intrusive thoughts to stop. "Leave me alone!"

Carley coughed weakly again, wheezing as she attempted to draw air into her lungs. "I'm sorry, Carley." Lilly whispered in-between pants. "I'm so sorry."

No one had even stopped to make sure Carley was dead. They had all been so busy hating on Lilly that they didn't even check her victim. Lilly knew she wasn't of sound mind and that she was probably incapable of taking care of a badly-wounded, dependent being. She was hearing voices and couldn't shake the feeling that everyone in the group had been conspiring against her. She knew it was crazy, but that awareness didn't assuage the delusions and paranoia. She was slipping fast, and she wasn't sure she could stop it.

How could she be expected to help another person, when she was in need of help herself?

Carley's labored breaths puffed warm air on Lilly's neck. _She deserves someone better than me to take care of her._

She couldn't stay mad at Carley. Not as she was now. She may have been a traitor, but that didn't matter anymore. She was now the only thing Lilly had left - and Lilly was all Carley had, either. They were alone, injured, mentally unstable, and running for their lives from a bunch of horrific monsters. Holding any sort of grudge would have been senseless.

In the darkness, Lilly spotted a sign on the side of the road. It read ST. JOHN'S DAIRY, NEXT RIGHT. The words stopped her dead in her tracks. _Oh god, please no. Anywhere but there._ She looked around at the horde of undead still pursuing her. Nothing behind her but a dozen hungry monsters. Nothing ahead of her but miles of empty highway.

_Fuck everything. _She pulled Carley tighter to her, wrapping the woman's legs around her waist to keep her secured. Lilly didn't want to go back there. She would do almost anything to avoid it. But the Motor Inn was too far away, and her legs and lungs were already burning with exhaustion.

Following the sign, she hurried down the small country road that lead to the fallen farm.


	2. Welcome Home

Chapter 2

The farm was still crawling with walkers, the same as when they'd left it. The barn door was wide open, the fence toppled in places. The whole dairy reeked of spilled gasoline and dead flesh.

Lilly kicked open the gate, carrying Carley across the barren property. She avoided looking at the barn, remembering what was in there. Or what was left. She focused her attention on dragging Carley up the hilly makeshift steps and into the relative safety of closed doors. Lee had mentioned that the St. Johns had been hoarding a shit-load of medical supplies for their sick surgeries. Provided it hadn't been looted in the week since he'd been there, they probably had enough stocked in there to treat even a nasty bullet wound like Carley's.

Walkers roaming the fields began to take notice of the two humans in their vicinity. Several of the beasts pursued her, lumbering through the overrun fields. Lilly bounded up the front steps, throwing open the front door of the house. Slamming it shut behind her, she paused to catch her breath before continuing her desperate attempt to save both herself and the friend she had just tried to murder.

Wandering the lower floor, she passed the dining room where they had all convened that night. She tried not to think about it, about that entire experience. About how much she had...enjoyed...eating _that_.

_Maybe if Carley doesn't make it, you can have another barbecue._

She squeezed her eyes shut, drowning out the compulsive thought. They weren't her thoughts. She wasn't thinking them. They just materialized there, in her head, and made her think and do these terrible things. For the umpteenth time in the past few months, she considered the possibility that she may actually be losing her mind.

A guttural snarl snapped her back to reality. She forced herself to look into the dining room, and discovered exactly what she had been afraid of. Amidst a tapestry of blood stains smearing the wooden floor, a legless walker was dragging itself toward her.

_Oh, god, no._ Lilly backed away from the remains of their fallen comrade. _Mark..._

Carley choked up more bloody saliva. Lilly grimaced as it dripped down the sleeve of her jacket. _She needs medical attention, now._

The walker lifted its head, snarling again. Lilly dashed up the stairs, Carley in tow, searching for something to use as a weapon. The walker chased after her, as fast as it could go without legs. As she looked down from the top of the staircase at the pathetic, amputated thing, she realized it couldn't pull itself up very well. She had time.

The closest bedroom sat, wide open, two doors down. The first door was opened slightly, but Lilly passed it and carried Carley straight into the bedroom instead. As she laid her gently down on the sheets, she noticed a trail of dried blood on the floor that led into a blood-soaked bathroom. The sight of it, combined with the sight of Mark just moments before, was enough to turn her already-weak stomach. She struggled not to vomit as she thought of all the horrors that had befallen them on this farm.

Carley shifted slightly, still visibly in pain. _I've got to take care of her first._ The walker situation could wait.

Lilly knelt by Carley's side, carefully unwrapping the makeshift bandage that dressed her wound. Beneath it, the gaping hole in Carley's face appeared to be hemorrhaging blood. _Shit, I've got to get this fixed up quick._

She knew the house had held medical supplies, but she had no idea where. So she resigned to pulling open every door in the upstairs hallway, hoping that one of them would provide a clue. Eventually she spotted the partially-open door at the foot of the stairs, and examined it briefly before yanking it open. To her relief, it was a closet filled with shelves of surgical necessities and medicine. If the place had been looted, they'd missed all of this. _Jesus Christ. _She grabbed an armful of bottles and tubes, carrying them back into the bedroom.

Carley groaned, a horrible, garbled sound, as Lilly propped her up on some pillows and tried to figure out just what to do with her. She wasn't a medic. She didn't have any experience healing people. All her time in the military had taught her was how to kill people.

She found herself wishing her mother could have been there. She'd worked as a military nurse, and would definitely have been able to treat an injury like Carley's. "Sorry you're stuck with me." she muttered, opening a bottle of antiseptic.

The strong scent of it choked her. She held it away from herself to avoid the awful smell. Setting it down on the nightstand, she next shook a cotton ball out of a half-empty bag and dabbed it into the potent liquid. _I hope this is what I'm supposed to do for a wound like this. _

With trembling fingers, she wiped down the wounded area. Even in her comatose state, Carley apparently felt the sting of the antiseptic. She twisted away, making another horrific gurgling noise. "Come on." Lilly re-adjusted her on the bed. "Hold still."

After disinfecting the wound as best she could, Lilly considered the major question – take the bullet out, or leave it in? _It could do more damage coming out. _It seemed to be resting in a place that wasn't fatal to Carley. Leaving it in would probably be the safest option.

But then again, she would never heal properly with it stuck in there. And once it healed over as much as it could, who knew what kind of diseases she could get from having a foreign object trapped under the skin.

Lilly massaged her temples in frustration. Downstairs, she could hear Mark clawing at the wooden floor. _Fuck, I'm not qualified to do this._

She picked up what she assumed were some sort of medical pliers. She had experience fixing cars. She knew how to fix a plane engine. But fixing a human – it was on a completely different level.

_Okay, just gotta..._ She hovered near the entrance of the bullet wound. Just gotta what? Not touch the sides? This wasn't a fucking board game. Carley's situation was life-or-death – and after what Lilly had done to her back on the roadside, this shoddy surgery was the least she deserved.

The cold steel tongs pushed their way into Carley's gaping jaw hole. Carley jerked, sputtering and attempting to cry out. "Damn it, hold still!" A free hand kept the injured woman held down while Lilly fished around inside her for the bullet. _Christ, this is so awful._

Eventually the tongs closed on the rounded chunk of metal. _Got it._ Lilly cautiously retrieved the bullet, drawing her hand back until it was out. Such a tiny little thing, and yet it had managed to cause so much pain and damage. She thought she knew all about guns and weaponry, but it wasn't until she could see the aftermath of them that she realized just how terrifyingly powerful they really were. The way they could take such delicate, fragile flesh and cleave it open just like that.

Newly-disturbed, the wound began to ooze fresh blood. _Oh god. Oh fuck._ Backing away, Lilly made a mad dash for the medicine closet. She grabbed a roll of gauze and some medical tape. As she was closing the door, she noticed walker Mark working its way up the stairs. It had made a surprising amount of progress in the few minutes she'd been gone. There was no way she could leave it unattended again.

She set the gauze down at the her feet, digging through the closet for something sharp. She managed to find a scalpel.

The legless walker clambered its way up to the second floor, reaching desperately for her. Clutching the scalpel, Lilly knelt down to its level. The walker still had Mark's glasses on, she noticed. It still looked like him.

_ It's not him._

"I'm sorry." She wasn't used to killing walkers. Especially not walkers she'd known in life. With a single thrust, the scalpel pierced his rotted skull, splattering blackened brain fluid on her leather boots. The walker stopped moving, collapsing to the floor. Lilly kicked it down the stairs.

After Mark was dealt with, she hurried back into the bedroom, tearing off a strip of medical tape with her teeth. Dropping her armful of supplies onto the bedside table, she set to work bandaging the wound. On the bed sheet lay the blood-soaked bullet, the cause of both women's current problems.

Once the bandages were applied and the bleeding abated, Lilly found herself staring down at the unconscious woman before her. Her jaw was completely wrecked. Lilly wondered if she would ever be able to talk again. She was always speaking her mind and voicing her opinions – it would be strange to see her exist in silence.

Half of the skin on the left side of her face was torn clean off, revealing bare bone and muscle tissue. Lilly didn't know how – or _if _– she'd ever manage to fix that. _God, why did I do this? _All because of an argument they'd gotten into? Carley had just been defending herself against Lilly's accusations. She wasn't the one who'd started it.

But she was the one who almost died because of it.

"You didn't deserve this, Carley." That voice, the dark corner of her mind that formed her most primal and terrifying impulses, had driven her to it. She was weak. She'd given in. "No one deserves this."

_She's slowing you down. Risking your life._

Without conscious awareness, her hand drifted to a pair of surgical scissors on the bedspread. She wrapped her fingers around the cold steel, lifting the instrument off the bed.

With her head leaned back and propped up on a pillow, Carley's delicate neck was completely exposed. _One slice. That's all it would take to end both her suffering and yours._

Realizing what she was doing, Lilly jerked back. "No! This isn't what I want to do!" The pervasive ticker-tape of paranoid impulse began streaming through her mind again. _Leave her for the walkers. Take the medical supplies and go. Don't waste them on her._

The more she tried to shut them out, the more the obsessive thoughts echoed.

_She's of no use to you. Kill her._

Her shaking hand clutched the scissors. Carley twisted weakly on the bed, still groaning. The pulse in her throat thumped irregularly, working hard to try to keep her alive. _I...I can put her out of this misery._

Her shattered mind too weak to resist, Lilly lifted Carley's chin with two fingers. "Maybe this _is_ the best option." There was no way she could save Carley. She couldn't protect the last person she had left. What kind of a leader was she, anyway? _A terrible one._

A beam of moonlight arced through the bedroom window, illuminating the face of a woman she'd come to know and care about. She wasn't just another mouth to feed or victim to nurse back to health. She was _Carley_. She had a name, and a story, and a voice that she always made use of. Sometimes even to defend Lilly from Kenny. Killing her would be ending the saga of one of the last few people to have known her before she'd been reduced to this mentally-unstable shadow of her former self. Carley had known her. Carley had known her father. How could she take out the last companion she had?

"...No." She turned and threw the scissors against the wall. They banged off the tattered wallpaper, hitting the floor with a clang. "I won't do it."

The voice in her head reprimanded her, cursing her for being too emotionally invested. This was about _survival_, it screamed.

_There's no point in surviving if I have to become a fucking monster in the process._ She knelt back down beside Carley, gingerly wiping the streaks of blood off her chin with a gauze pad. _I've fucked up enough already. I won't be adding to that._

Despite her confidence that she had done the right thing, all she could feel was a gut-wrenching sense of wrongness. She tried to ignore it, to reassure herself that trying to save her wounded friend wasn't wrong. But that violent inner voice wouldn't let her feel good about it. It just made her feel stupid and weak.

She remained by Carley's side for hours, tending to her, until finally her tired body gave out. She fell asleep still kneeling at the side of the bed, her arms folded beneath her chin on the edge of the blanket. The last thing she saw before she closed her eyes was Carley's gruesome wound. It haunted her fitful sleep all night.


	3. The Experienced Dr Caul

Chapter 3

_Holy mother of fuck._

Carley felt as though she'd been punched in the mouth with a set of brass knuckles. Her entire jaw ached with a sharp, radiating pain that she couldn't explain. Curious, she lifted her hand to touch her face. Her fingers traced the surface of something rough that was stuck to her cheek. Maybe some kind of bandage?

She couldn't explore it for long without the pain spiking through her again. It was too dark to see the details of where she was or what had happened to her, but a small stream of moonlight helped her decipher it as some kind of bedroom. Beside her, someone – or something – knelt at the bedside, its face buried in its bony arms.

Carley attempted to turn her head, to get a closer look at the creature sleeping at her bedside. The movement sent another rippling jolt of pain through her jaw. She cried out. In place of the scream she had intended, a weak, garbled groan escaped her.

Pathetic as it was, the small noise roused the sleeping person. "W-what?" a female voice murmured, the person sitting up and looking around. "What's going on?"

It was Lilly. Her gaunt form rose up over Carley, studying her carefully. "Holy shit, you're awake."

Lilly was the last person she wanted to see in the midst of all this insanity. But at least that meant she wasn't all alone. She had someone to explain the situation to her.

Carley opened her mouth to respond. The shooting pain halted her, spawning another gurgled moan. "Shh." Lilly leaned in closer, taking Carley gently by the chin. She turned her from side to side a little bit, obviously examining whatever kind of wound Carley had suffered since losing consciousness however long ago. "Try not to move your mouth. Shit, it still looks pretty bad."

Everything was so confusing. One minute she'd been arguing with Lilly on the side of the road, and the next she was lying in a strange bed, being taken care of by the paranoid leader.

_Where are we? Where's everyone else?_ The questions burned in her mind, desperate to be asked. _What happened to me?_

Lilly reached over to a nightstand nearby, grabbing some kind of small white square that resembled a napkin. She blotted Carley's chin, tending to her with gentle but shaking fingers. Carley strained her gaze downward, catching a glimpse of what she realized what a gauze pad. It was soaked with watery, pinkish blood.

Lilly must have noticed her glance down at it, because she quickly pulled it away and retrieved a fresh piece. "You're, uh, drooling a little." she mumbled. "I got it, though."

The next object Lilly grabbed was some kind of horrible-smelling jar of something. She dipped a cotton ball in it, and brought it to Carley's wounded cheek. The next thing Carley felt was the tug of a bandage being pulled off of her. She refrained from crying out. Lilly was attempting to peel it back gingerly, but it didn't lessen the pain any.

And then began the sting of the antiseptic. A burn like she'd never felt before, like someone was injecting molten lava directly into her face – except it was cold, and somehow that made it burn even more. Carley groaned, shaking her head as she twisted away. "I have to make sure it doesn't get infected." Lilly's bossy tone defied her tender touch. "Hold still."

Carley squeezed her eyes shut, trying not to think of the pain. Her thoughts drifted back to the last thing she remembered before waking up in bed – the fight outside the RV. She had snapped at Lilly, telling her off for bullying Ben. Then Kenny had taken care of the walker, and she'd turned to ask him what he thought of the traitor situation.

What happened after that?

The chemical stench of the antiseptic nauseated her. Lilly continued to wipe down her injury, reapplying the bandage when she was finished. "To be honest, I'm surprised you're alive. I never would have thought..." She trailed off, shaking her head as she laid the medical supplies back on the nightstand. "But anyway, I guess I'm glad you are. There's no way in hell I'd want to be alone in this fucked-up world."

_Alone?_ Carley shot her a quizzical look.

Noticing her glance, Lilly elaborated. "Yeah, we're all alone now. Kenny, Lee...they fucking left us on the side of the road." Mentioning the two men, Lilly's tone was bitter. "I carried you here on my back." She rolled the muscles in her shoulders, cracking them. "I'm still feeling that, by the way."

_Why did they leave us? Where are we now? What happened to me that caused all this blood and pain?_ Carley desperately wanted to know, but Lilly didn't seem to be volunteering any information. Her curiosity was left unsated.

Carley coughed, wincing as pain coursed through her. Lilly leaned over and pushed some loose hair out of Carley's face, tucking it behind her ear. "Look, I know we had our differences and our disagreements before. I still think you're annoying, and I'm sure you still think I'm a bitch."

A little afraid to agree, Carley averted her eyes and gazed out the window.

"But now it's just the two of us, and our lives depend on working together." She waited until Carley made eye contact again. Even in the near-complete darkness, Lilly's eyes were shining, leaving Carley to wonder if she'd been crying in her sleep. "Do you understand that?"

_Obviously._ Carley nodded as best she could, even though she suspected that Lilly was talking more to herself than to her.

"Good."

Trying to avoid looking at the other woman, a pouch on the far end of the bed caught her attention. It was clear, and filled with some kind of clear liquid as well. Attached to it was a long tube, ending with a pointed nozzle. She lifted her head to study it, prompting Lilly to explain. "That's morphine. I can't figure out how to get it in you, though."

Morphine. Now _there_ was something she'd love to have in her system as that moment. Anything to alleviate that horrible pain.

"I think it's an IV pouch." Lilly picked it up and started fiddling with it.

_No shit it's an IV pouch._ Carley raised her arm, reaching feebly in an attempt to convey her desire for the medicine. The pain was crippling her, and she'd do anything to escape it for a little while.

Lilly seemed to misread her cues. Instead of trying to figure out how to get it into Carley, the shaky woman brought the pouch closer so Carley could read it. "Do you think that's what it is?"

Carley eagerly nodded, trying to ignore the throbbing agony in the left half of her face. Lilly studied the nozzle end, peering into it. "You don't want me to...try to stick it in you, do you?"

Carley nodded furiously.

Lilly hedged. "...Yes you do? Or yes you don't?"

_Oh for fuck's sake!_ Carley snatched the bag out of her hands, shaking it in Lilly's face. Seeming to get the hint at last, Lilly took it back. "All right, maybe I can figure this out. Can't be too hard."

She held the needle tip up to the moonlight, looking it over. Carley watched as she poked her finger against the point of it, then hissed and recoiled. "Okay, so this is nice and fucking sharp."

Carley groaned. _I'm gonna die, aren't I._

Lilly reached for Carley's wrist, overturning it and positioning the needle over one of her veins. Carley shook her head vehemently, pulling away. _Not in the wrist! _Was Lilly brain-dead or something? Had she never seen someone with an IV drip before? Carley pointed to the back of her hand, and then to the crook of her arm. _Somewhere in here._

Lilly furrowed her brows, clearly confused by Carley's wild gesturing. "I've never done this before," she volunteered, as if it wasn't already obvious. "Maybe I should take another look in the closet, in case there's some other kind of painkiller I can use. Because I have no fucking clue what I'm doing with this."

Carley whimpered as Lilly disappeared with the pouch of sweet relief. The other woman was lucky Carley couldn't talk, or she'd be getting an earful. How stupid could you possibly be? Didn't she have fucking military training? And yet she couldn't figure out how to get morphine into a wounded and horribly-pained patient.

How lucky she was to be in the hands of the experienced Dr. Caul.

After lying idle for a minute, she noticed the ceiling seemed to be moving. Spinning, almost. The pain was already making her nauseous, and vertigo certainly wasn't helping to settle her stomach. She closed her eyes, resting her head on the foreign pillow as a sob welled up inside her. The pain was like nothing she'd ever felt before. It was unbelievable, like she'd been shot.

The thought stuck in her mind. Her eyelids fluttered open. _Like I was shot..._

The watery memories began finding their way back to her. The ear-splitting 'bang' as she was turning around to talk to Kenny. It was the very last thing she remembered.

Her gaze lowered to the materials on the sheet. There, amidst the medical supplies, lay a small, bloody bullet. _I __**was**__ shot. Somebody shot me._

The door creaked softly open. Lilly re-appeared before her, clutching a small brown bottle. "Look what I found."

She sounded so proud of herself. Carley felt like spitting in her face.

Lilly held the bottle out to her. It was also morphine, just packaged differently. In her other hand was a gigantic hypodermic needle. "Now _this_ I can figure out."

Lacking the will to be difficult, Carley offered her arm to Lilly. _Someone shot me..._

Lilly turned the bottle upside down and tapped it with her fingernail, filling the needle with fluid. Then she grabbed a fresh cotton swab and wiped down Carley's forearm with the antiseptic. _Someone tried to kill me._

Carley sucked in a breath as the needle pierced the tender flesh of her inner elbow. _They left Lilly on the street...she and I had just been fighting..._

The morphine flooded her system as her brain made the connection. _Wait a minute...did Lilly..._

A dense fog settled in her mind almost instaneously. Wow, that stuff was powerful. Her realization was quickly forgotten as she sank into the bliss of numbness. She noticed Lilly was still injecting the morphine. She probably didn't need that much.

Lilly said something to her, but it wasn't anything important. Probably.

A tiny, relieved smile curled up the good side of her face as she laid back and closed her eyes once more. The pain was gone. Lilly was taking care of her. Everything was good.

* * *

Lilly studied the bottle, trying to make out the label in the darkness. Carley seemed to be in la-la land already, smiling up at her despite the garish wound to her jaw. "I think I might've given you too much." She hadn't factored in Carley's small size. In fact, she hadn't really factored in anything – she'd just kept going until the huge needle was empty.

_Mom would be so proud._

Her heart quivered as she noticed the wounded woman gazing up at her with that contented look. She knew it was just the morphine, but still, seeing her looking happy did strange and unwanted things to Lilly's emotions. _I can't take care of her. God, I already gave her way too much morphine. What if she doesn't come out of it all right?_

Carley laid back, closing her expressive brown eyes. Lilly wasn't sure whether to wake her or let her rest. At least when she was awake Lilly could monitor her condition better.

"Carley..." She frowned, unable to ignore the likely-irreparable damage she'd done to the other woman's face. _She may never talk again. She might never be okay again. All because of me and my...my stupid 'impulses'._

The malevolent side of her had yet to emerge since she was woken by Carley, and she was thankful for that. But she had no idea how long the 'dry spell' would last. She could have another relapse into insanity at any time, and Carley was the prime victim.

_I'll keep both of us safe._ She cleared away the medical supplies, dumping them into the drawer of the nightstand. She decided to check out the rest of the house while Carley was resting, to make sure it was secure enough to remain in. The walkers hadn't found them yet, but that didn't mean they weren't going to.

She crept out into the hall, closing the door quietly behind her. Carley was lying on her back, still breathing rhythmically and contentedly. As Lilly shut the door, she hesitated, listening for a few more of Carley's breaths.

_You're all I've got now. You better not die on me._


End file.
